


Sketches

by Kannika



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Artist AU, F/M, Fluff, Meet-Cute, Neji Has No Clue How to Be Social
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:34:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26177296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kannika/pseuds/Kannika
Summary: Neji doesn't particularly like people. He likes his sketchbook. He likes drawing the animals at the zoo in solitude or with a couple of close friends who know him well.But there's a new girl drawing the tiger, and he's intrigued.
Relationships: Hyuuga Neji/Tenten
Comments: 4
Kudos: 32





	Sketches

**Author's Note:**

> I have returned to my original fandom after a long, long absence! It feels good. I wrote this years and years ago and forgot about it until I was cleaning up my files lol. 
> 
> I missed these characters. I've been so nostalgic lately it's ridiculous.

Neji was _not_ used to having his attention stalled by a girl.

She was sketching in front of the tiger cage, and hadn’t moved for about twenty minutes. Sitting cross-legged, brow furrowed over her squinted eyes, biting her lip in concentration, she looked the image of a professional. She barely shifted in her spot; her eyes only left her paper to look into the exhibit again for reference. At one point she frowned, stuck her pencil lead-first into her mouth, and raked her eraser across the paper so viciously he was sure she was going to rip the paper. She was so _focused._

He couldn’t stop staring. 

“Neji?”

He started— Shikamaru and Kiba had managed to sneak up on him. “What?” He asked, voice neutral, but the two boys exchanged a knowing look, and he groaned inwardly.

_Let the rumors begin._

“So who are you stalking?” Shikamaru drawled.

“Nobody.”

“Hm…” Kiba looked over his shoulder and gave a wolfish grin. “Hey, Nobody’s pretty hot. If you’re not stalking her then can I have a go?”

“How are you not in jail yet?” Neji shook his head and pointedly walked past him. “Come on. I thought we were meeting Naruto and Choji. Are they here yet?”

“Aw, come on, what’s the harm? Just ask her out.”

“I don’t even know her name.”

“Even better. Go ask her name.”

“She’s busy.” But just as he said that he turned to get one last look, just on a whim to see if she wasn’t. She was still working, but she seemed to realize she was being watched and chose that instant to raise her eyes. They made eye contact, and she gave him the same studying look that she had given the tiger. Neji looked away first. 

Shikamaru scoffed. Neji shot him a glare that would make anyone else stop dead in their tracks, but with him he just raised an eyebrow and jerked his head none too subtly in the girl’s direction. 

“What’s the worst that could happen?” He said. 

Lots of things, actually. Neji wasn’t exactly… good with girls. His cousin, Hinata, told him he was intimidating. Like a shark. Like everything about him was too sharp and he didn’t know how to soften it, so he came across to strangers as… prickly. It was a wonder he had the small group of semi-friends he was here with at all. When it came to girlfriends, he kind of thought he’d die alone.

But this girl. He was intrigued. He wanted to see that drawing.

Kiba nudged his shoulder and managed to catch him off guard— he stumbled and whipped around in surprise to find him looking extremely self-satisfied. “Go.”

“No.”

Kiba’s canine smile widened. “Go talk to her or I will.”

Just the fact that that was unacceptable meant he had already lost. He ground his teeth together and walked slowly, hands in his pockets, toward the girl.

She didn’t look up when he walked toward her, and he realized he didn’t have it in him to disturb her while she was working, so he settled on a rock a few paces away and took out his own sketchbook before sneaking another glance. Her pencil never stopped moving and her shoulders were hunched over in the worst posture he had ever seen, but she definitely knew what she was doing. She had probably been drawing for a while.

Neji looked down at his sketchbook. He was pretty good, he thought— but only with sketches. And he had way too much free time. His friends liked to say he spent more time sketching than speaking. Probably true, to be fair. He knew which one he liked more. 

He glanced back up, and froze— the girl was staring back at him.

“Do I have something on my face?” she asked. “Or are you drawing me?”

It probably didn’t help that his instant reaction was to slam his notebook shut; her eyes widened, stunned, and he internally cringed. _Nice, Neji. That didn’t look suspicious at all._ “No,” he said. “I… you looked familiar.”

“Liar.” She tilted her head, like she was trying to decide whether to be angry with him or not. God, she was even prettier up close. What had caught his attention in the first place, the intensity of her eyes, was arresting when it was turned on him. Although when she saw _his_ eyes up close, she startled and blinked rapidly like she was seeing things wrong. 

“I’m not blind,” Neji said, because he had a feeling that was what she was about to assume.

After a last studying second, she cracked a smile. “I’d assume not, if you have a sketchbook.” She nodded to the book in his lap. “If you were sketching me, can I see it?”

That wasn’t what he had expected— she was a lot more open to talking than he had expected— but he had to shake his head. “I wasn’t. You just… startled me.”

She tilted her head to the side, waiting. He was so bad at this. He prayed to God the others weren’t listening because if they were, they were probably having a field day with this.

“My name’s Neji,” he offered.

A bit of a smile played on her lips, and she stuck out her hand. “Tenten. Nice to meet you.”

He took it. Her hands, although they looked soft, were actually rough with calluses, and he debated with himself for a second as he pulled back, then asked, “What else do you do?”

To his surprise, she tucked her bangs behind her ear and ducked her head, looking embarrassed. “I, um…” She paused. “This is going to sound weird, but, um… I like weapons.”

Neji blinked. That was _not_ what he had expected. 

“I’m not a serial killer,” Tenten said hurriedly. “My dad’s a blacksmith. I grew up with them. I mostly do fencing, darts, knife-throwing… that kind of thing.”

Neji stared at her. _Amazing._ Those were fast-dying arts, and the kind of thing he remembered reading about when he was younger. “I do Tai Chi,” he offered. “So I… get it.”

She smiled again, understanding what he was trying to do. That was a relief. Not very many people did. “You do Tai Chi and draw. You’re quite the party person.”

That smile. It compelled him to talk. It was the weirdest thing. “My friends had to drag me here by promising I could bring my sketchbook.”

Tenten’s grin widened. “Favorite animal. Go.”

“Um…” Embarrassingly, Neji’s mind went blank. Did he have a favorite animal? “Um. Bird.”

“Hm, interesting. Any particular kind?”

He shrugged. “I like them when they can fly. That’s all.”

Something about her softened, when he said that, like she could tell it meant more to him than he said. He didn’t know how she could have known, but she did. She nodded toward his sketchbook. “Is that what you draw?”

“Mostly.” His grip tightened instinctively on it. “My… dad and I used to watch them.”

Tenten blinked. For a second he expected her to ask, but she dropped it, and instead looked back at the tiger in the exhibit in front of them. It was awake, now, for the first time, and prowling around, and when she saw it moving Tenten visibly brightened. “I get that.” She gestured toward it. “The tiger’s my favorite because it was my mom’s favorite. Well, technically dragons, but I haven’t found any zoos that have them yet.”

Neji stared at her. She had to be joking, but somehow… that wasn’t her tone of voice. She seemed like she took it as a personal challenge. “Yet,” he repeated.

She grinned back at him again. It made it feel like there were butterflies in his stomach. That was _new._

“Want to walk around?” He asked on a whim. 

She tilted her head, debating, then tucked her sketchbook up under her arm and stood, wobbling a little. “Ow. My legs are asleep. Moving is a good idea.”

On instinct, she reached for him with her first step, and he helped her stay upright and step away from the rocks they had been sitting on. There were wolf-whistles behind him— his ‘friends’, they were quite possibly dead when he was done with this— and Tenten faltered uncertainly. 

Neji rolled his eyes and strode decisively away from them. “Ignore them,” he said. “I do.” 

Tenten barked out a laugh and matched his next step. “You know, you’re not half bad. Where are we going?”

“Somewhere else.” His mind raced ahead— what did people usually do, when they went somewhere together, when they had already been talking? Eat. “To get something to eat.”

She halted a step and had to hurry to catch up to him. He probably should have stopped and waited for her. Why was this so _difficult?_ “Is that your way of asking me for a date?” She asked, voice a little more forced than before. 

This time Neji stopped in shock. Oh god. He _had._

Tenten spun around and laughed at the panic on his face. “Don’t worry. I don’t have a boyfriend.” She winked and started walking forward, hands laced behind her back over her sketchbook. It was frayed on the edges from overuse and there was a coffee stain on the cover and her name was written in sloppy maker on the bottom right corner and somehow, all of it together fit her perfectly. “Are you coming or not? I’m feeling like it’s a day for sandwiches. There’s a nice place next to the entrance.”

Neji felt a tiny bit dizzy— he just asked a girl on a _date—_ but he hurried to catch up to her and shouldered his pack so it was on the opposite side that she was walking on. “That… sounds good.”

She shot him a teasing smile. “I want to know what you draw when you’re not just following someone around.”

“Everything,” Neji said, then caught onto what she was doing. “I want to see that tiger.”

Tenten brightened, shrugging modestly. “It’s not done. We may have to go back.”

Neji felt himself smiling, relaxing. She was easy to talk to. She was _nice_ to talk to. The idea of spending time with her, as much time as he could get away with, didn’t sound exhausting like it normally did when someone suggested it. He was looking forward to it.

And at his silence, Tenten didn’t look uncomfortable. She wasn’t pushing him or trying to fill it. She just hummed, looking at the exhibits they passed with a contemplative, content smile.

He wanted to draw that smile, Neji realized— and maybe he would actually get the chance.


End file.
